More musings about National Security, KSM, etc.

No Civilian Trial — In NYC or ANYWHERE [Andy McCarthy]

Sorry for the radio silience, folks — I'm buried at the moment. But I've been asked by a few people for a comment on the Obama adminstration's reversal of its decision to try the 9/11 plotters in civilian court in Manhattan.

Here's my statement:

Reality has yet again dragged the Obama administration, kicking and screaming, toward a more sensible policy. Like the decision to close Gitmo, which was announced without regard for the imperative of detaining committed jihadists, the decision to hold civilian trials for alien enemy combatants was made without regard for security, costs, the prospect of surrendering national defense information to the enemy during wartime, or the betrayal of humanitarian law caused by rewarding the worst war criminals with gold-plated due process. Not holding the civilian trial in New York City is a good thing. Not holding a civilian trial at all would be a far better thing. Since we have not made provisions for a national-secuirty court to deal with the novel challenge of international terrorism, wartime alien enemy combatants should be tried by military commission in the safety of Guantanamo Bay — which is what it was built for, at great expense to the American taxpayer.


Andrew McCarthy from Dec 2009:

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8004931906890597215


Michael Hayden (Director of CIA 2006-2009 under Bush) today: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012903954.html